Illinois continuing push for more federal health-care dollars

Dana Heupel

Wednesday

Sep 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 26, 2007 at 3:52 PM

Now that federal dollars to help states pay for children’s health care appear safe at least into November, Illinois officials will continue to lobby Congress and the Bush administration to expand the program, the state’s Medicaid director said Wednesday.

Now that federal dollars to help states pay for children’s health care appear safe at least into November, Illinois officials will continue to lobby Congress and the Bush administration to expand the program, the state’s Medicaid director said Wednesday.

Federal authorization for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is set to expire Sunday, the last day of the federal fiscal year. However, the SCHIP funds were included at their current level in legislation the U.S. House passed Wednesday to keep government operating through Nov. 16. The Senate and President Bush are expected to approve the stopgap spending bill before Monday.

While Congress and the administration wrangle over the issue for the next seven weeks, “we’re trying to do our best to get out there and help the feds understand” Illinois’ situation, said Theresa Eagleson, administrator of the Division of Medical Programs for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

More than 300,000 low-income Illinoisans’ health-care needs are covered by SCHIP money funneled through the state’s All Kids and Family Care programs.

SCHIP provides funding for children of families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state program that covers medical bills for poor people, but not enough to purchase health insurance.

At present, Eagleson said, SCHIP covers children from families who earn 133 percent to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $40,000 for a family of four. The federal allocation to Illinois for the current federal fiscal year totals about $446 million. It covers about 170,000 children and, under a federal waiver, about 135,000 parents.

She stressed that Illinois’ All Kids and Family Care programs will continue no matter what the federal government does with SCHIP. Any loss of federal money would only place more of a burden on state government, she said.

The House passed a bill Tuesday evening to expand the SCHIP program by $35 billion over the next five years, but the margin wasn’t high enough to override a promised veto by Bush. The president has expressed concerns over its cost, but also has said it essentially would be a first step toward nationalized health care by extending coverage to more adults. He has proposed a $5 billion increase.

Among changes Illinois officials hope to see in the final version is a revision in how federal dollars are allocated to states, Eagleson said. At present, Illinois loses potential money because the state already provides funding for uninsured children, she said. Instead of basing federal awards on how many uninsured children a state has, the proposal the House passed would allocate federal money according to how much a state spends on health care for uninsured children, Eagleson said.

It also would allow states to claim matching federal funds for uninsured families with higher income levels, she said. The federal government provides 65 cents for each dollar the state spends under the SCHIP program.

Eagleson said she believes Bush administration officials are balking at the legislation in order to place more of a burden for the cost of children’s health care on the states.

“It seems like that’s the objective right now, is to make it very difficult for states to get the match that they can for health-care programs,” she said.